Change of pace
by Py-Cries
Summary: Ichinose liked getting along with his teammates. So of course he has to settle any differences that might occur.


"Hey, Handa."

The changing room of the Raimon soccer club, the club house, was almost empty. The last members had finished getting out of their sticky uniforms, full of sweat from the tiring training that Endou had ordered them to do. Ichinose had stayed back on purpose even though he had long since changed. There was some business to be taken care of.

The addressed stopped trying to fit his uniform into his already overloaded schoolbag and turned around, surprised. Handa blinked a few times perplexedly and seeing as Ichinose did not carry on the conversation, he mumbled out a short: "Yo."

An uncomfortable silence followed, Handa still held his mud stained uniform in hand and waited for the other to continue. Ichinose's gaze shifted towards his feet which he shuffled nervously. "There was something I wanted to talk about", Ichinose finally said. A nervous chuckle. "You see, um, I've been part of Raimon for nearly a week and I love it! You guys are really cool and everybody accepted me right away but you, er, well-"

"What are you trying to say?" Ichinose jumped. Handa had straightened up, his hand around the yellow fabric tightening.

"N-nothing, it's just that we don't really… talk."

"Well, what do you want to talk about?" Raimon's number six turned around to stuff the uniform into the bag which resulted in a nicely decorated bento box to fall out. Handa cursed and bent down to pick it up.

"I watched you guys' former matches and I didn't know that it was your position I had gotten-"

Handa cut him off. "It had to be _someone's_ position before you joined, you know?"

"Of course, but I, I just wanted to say sorry. I don't want you to feel like I have taken away your job!"

"Well, how do you expect me to feel?", Handa shouted, his voice breaking.

The door opened with a loud bang.

"Yo, Ichinose, what's taking you so long?" Domon's wide grin got extinguished by the heavy atmosphere. "What's going on?"

Handa turned around to cram the picked up box back into his bag. Domon threw the two brunettes a worried glance. Since Handa was not looking right now, Ichinose flailed around with his arms in order to make Domon leave. No way this was getting solved if his friend was there to witness it. Besides, Ichinose had the feeling that the topic of Domon stealing Kageno's position would undoubtedly come up if he stayed.

Apparently Domon understood as he made his way off with a nervous "Ahm, see you later.", not without throwing Ichinose a last anxious look.

The fight between Handa and his bag had apparently come to an end as he also walked towards the door. "H-hey, where are you going?"

"Trainings over, so home of course."

"But you can't – we've got a championship going on and we definitely won't beat Zeus if there's differences between our members!"

Handa stopped, his back towards Ichinose. "Since we won't stand on the field together, I doubt there's going to be a problem."

Slowly but surely this pissed Ichinose off. It was not easy for a so-called "prodigy" like him either. He might have been gladly accepted into every team for his talents but there had always been kids that were not too fond of the "superstar" Ichinose Kazuya, just like Handa. He had not joined Raimon to push somebody aside, the soccer club's sheer lust for life and lightheartedness had drawn him towards them.

Gruffly Ichinose grabbed Handa by his arm to make them face each other. "And with that attitude you won't ever", he snarled.

"What?" The word had come out low and husky, no sign of the sometimes still hearable vocal change.

"If you don't do anything about it, people will always push you around and take away your chances. Nobody will handle you with kid's gloves out there and it's time to learn that! This is soccer! Train and maybe you'll be capped at the next game! But this way you'll stay in a hole of self-pity!", Ichinose snapped.

For a moment that seemed to hold on forever they just stared at each other until Handa turned his head away and murmured: "I know." These two tiny words and voice they were said in made Ichinose uncomfortable. "I _know_ that I can't keep up with people. I'm not fast like Kazemaru or strong like Gouenji. My only forte is that I don't totally suck. Back then I had actually drawn a line under my soccer-career, I only joined because I thought in a small club like this one I wouldn't slow anybody down-" The speech ended in a miserable sob.

_Oh no._ One would think that something like this could be talked about without one of them breaking into was not what Ichinose had wanted at all. Maybe some chitchat and then going to the CD-store together or something but not making the other cry. Nonono.

"Uhm, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said all of that, I guess…", Ichinose trailed off. Handa quickly turned around and tried to wipe the tears away with the sleeve of his uniform. The other sighed and ran a hand through his untidy hair. Great. "Now I feel like a piece of shit."

Handa made a choked noise. "But I guess I needed that." He turned around, laughing nervously. "Sorry for crying like a girl." His eyes were still red and there were tear streaks on his slightly flushed cheeks which he tried to wipe away.

Ichinose did not know what hit him and said the first thing that came to his mind. "Don't worry, in America I have a lot of girl friends."

Handa blinked a few times. He snorted. "Gee, thanks."

"Ah! I didn't mean it that way, it… just… kinda slipped out!"

"I will take it personally."

"I'm sorry!"

"Rejected."

The two stepped out of the fusty clubroom, glad to able to smell the freshly planted flowers instead of sweat and old soccer shoes.

"Why didn't you say anything though?"

Handa snorted. "I already threw a fit when Kidou joined because the team was changing and I didn't like it. Shishido was really depressed that he wasn't put on the field and it ticked me off. Must have been the first time I ever started a fight. No way I could have pulled this off again without getting in trouble with the coach. "

Maybe Handa was not just one of these jealous kids again. Maybe he was just a bit of an overworried senior that cared for his team. But Ichinose would make sure that by the time he left for America again, the other would be able to take over the position again without anybody noticing that there was a change.

"I heard coach has ramen restaurant, wanna go?"


End file.
